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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28698795">Can't Get It Out Of My Head</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mister_otter/pseuds/mister_otter'>mister_otter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adult Draco Malfoy, Adult Hermione Granger, Dark Magic, Dreams, Eventual Romance, F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Magical Artifacts, Missing Persons, Mystery, Original Character(s), Professor Draco Malfoy, Spells &amp; Enchantments</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:34:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>14,603</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28698795</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mister_otter/pseuds/mister_otter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ancient artifacts, arcane magic, and a Hogwarts mystery that hits close to home for both Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>66</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A world of thanks to my wonderful beta and friend, eilonwy! We have shared many years of magical adventures; may the adventures continue for many more!<br/></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <i>June, 2018</i>
</p><p>Night lay over Hogwarts Castle like an enchanted cloak, encouraging the inhabitants to sleep. </p><p>It was quiet, still, and just past the witching hour when Draco Malfoy came fully awake, startled by a vivid and almost delicious dream.</p><p>He’d dreamt of sitting by the ocean beneath a sky rich with summer constellations. He knew it was summer because he’d picked out Scorpio, for which his son had been named, ascending on the dark horizon. </p><p>The susurration of the waves was soothing, their white foam tumbling as they broke against the shoreline.</p><p>Otherwise, there was only silence and a strange sort of peace. The sort that lets you relax and center yourself, before the thing comes that will bring the opposite of peace. </p><p>Draco saw the light before he saw anything else. </p><p>It bobbed above the water some distance out, drawing closer to where he sat in the damp sand. Glowing, dancing, silver. Like a star fallen and captured.</p><p> He heard the voice next. A female voice rising and falling with the hypnotic murmur of the waves. The sound of his name drifted to him on the night air.</p><p>“Draco... Dracooo…”</p><p>The light bobbed. The voice called. And then he saw the woman. </p><p>Walking on the serpentine curve of a wave, she came toward him. A silver orb floated in her cupped left hand, limning the lush outlines of her body beneath the sheer fabric of her gown. White. The best color for a phantom. </p><p>Her hair blew wild and free, a cluster of silken snakes fanned by the breeze sailing inland from the starlit water. Even at this distance he could see the gleam of her eyes, holding his, casting spells.</p><p>Could this be the ocean’s daughter? Or a spirit embodying the mystical allure of the sea? Draco wanted it to be <i>that.</i> He did. He really did. </p><p>Instead, “Hermione.” </p><p>He spoke her name just once and then sat up, his heart pounding, his mind disoriented. </p><p>Why her? Why now?</p><p>“Why not?” the night seemed to say.</p><p>One swear word was not enough. Draco swore repeatedly and creatively, running his hands over his face and through his pale hair until it was as wild as Granger’s. Finally, he sighed and dropped his hands.</p><p>Around him lay the office he had claimed for his own last autumn, when he’d unexpectedly accepted the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. </p><p>Unexpected, that is, to everyone but himself. </p><p>By that stage in his life, Draco had known he needed to find a <i>purpose</i>. At thirty-eight, he wanted something more than handling the Malfoy family business, something deeper than his hobby of collecting dark artifacts. </p><p>When the position became available, he’d applied. Who better than a Malfoy/Black to know what Defense Against the Dark Arts should really entail? Plus, the move had allowed him to be near his children— Scorpius, wrapping up his first year at Hogwarts, and Astariel, finishing her third.</p><p>Now Draco was wrapping up a year of his own, a year that had flown by without a single glitch. </p><p>Until tonight, when he’d fallen asleep at his desk and seemed not just to dream but to enter another world. Vibrant, exquisite, and so real that he could still smell the briny air and feel the wet sand beneath his feet. </p><p>But he was seated at his desk, for fuck’s sake, his shoes in place and his arse in a chair, miles from any warm, nighttime ocean. </p><p>There was drool on tomorrow’s lesson plan and smeared ink, which was likely on his cheek as well. He whisked it all away with a quick <i>Scourgify.</i></p><p>But the dream lingered. It swirled through his head and finally settled on the central figure— that woman with the inescapable Medusa stare, coming toward him like a goddess set on seduction or destruction. Or possibly some of both. </p><p>Again, why her and why now? </p><p>Hermione Granger was no vision. She was a living, breathing person with a life of her own. </p><p>Anything that had <i>almost</i> happened between them had been left on the table unexplored, twenty years ago. He’d barely seen her since, though if he were honest, she did cross his mind on occasion, leaving an intriguing trail of what-ifs and what-might-have-beens. It was nothing he focused on. Just something that happened from time to time in a tantalizing, peripheral way. </p><p>Something, he realized, that created a pleasant, warm feeling, best enjoyed tangentially and allowed to fade. Until the next time.<br/>
Problem solved, then. He’d thought of her tonight because he just sometimes <i>did,</i> that was all.  And now, her son was a favorite school friend of his daughter. Connections and reflections. Any of that could come into the mind at night and cause a dream.</p><p><i>Could it, Malfoy? Could it really cause a dream that mad, that imaginative?</i> It was Hermione’s voice he heard in his head.</p><p>Swearing again, Draco rose from his desk chair and went to pour himself a large fire whiskey. </p><p>Thank Merlin there were essays to mark and DADA final exams to formulate. He didn’t plan on sleeping any more this night.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div><i>London, just after midnight</i><p>Hermione threw her head back, a moan erupting, her tangled curls tickling her naked shoulders. Her partner, equally naked, hoisted her into his arms. Her legs wrapped around him as they kissed, hot, wet, starvation-level kisses.  Releasing her grip, Hermione slid down the length of Draco Malfoy’s pale body, her tongue following her descent like a slaloming skier. She dropped to her knees, tongue swirling over Draco’s rigid cock, and</p><p>Promptly woke up.</p><p>She blinked several times. Nothing was standing at attention in front of her except the umbrella hanging from the back of her office door. Apparently, she’d fallen asleep at her desk. Again. </p><p>Her quill had leaked on the Proffitt-Edgerton report. Hermione swore. She’d been working on that report for bloody hours. </p><p>Around her, the Ministry of Magic lay quietly deserted, her co-workers gone for the night. She’d never even noticed them leaving. But then, they had lives outside of work. If she were honest with herself, she really didn’t. Not since Leo had started at Hogwarts three years ago.  </p><p>Hermione swiveled her chair toward the wide <i>faux window</i> on the back wall, where a charmed cityscape of busy London glittered, the night sky arching above it like a luminous dome. </p><p>The disoriented feeling lingered. Draco Malfoy, after all this time? Really, Hermione?</p><p><i>You’re acting mental</i> she told herself, massaging her temples with her fingertips. Your mother is right. You’re alone too much; you work too hard. You need to get out more. </p><p>You only dreamed about Malfoy because Leo mentions him so often. The man’s his favorite professor. Leo’s latest letter from Hogwarts brought back memories, is all. Hermione touched a folded parchment at the edge of her desk.</p><p>No doubt, that’s what had set off this whole thing. Her son’s letter, detailing a project for Professor Malfoy’s class. His project partner? Malfoy’s daughter. </p><p>Circles, triangles, and life’s little ironies.</p><p>Hermione rose from her chair and walked toward the glittering cityscape. She stared without seeing it, caught in a sudden memory. </p><p>8th year DADA. Draco Malfoy had been <i>her</i> class partner then— her unexpected friend, who’d almost (just one intense snogging session, but she’d been hopeful) turned into something more.</p><p>“You will each be given a dark artifact,” Professor McNeely had told the students. “No need to worry, these items have all been deactivated and cleansed for classroom use. They are completely safe.” </p><p>No one was worried about a few dark artifacts. They’d just survived a war.<br/>
McNeely had strolled around the room with his hands clasped behind his back, an elderly wizard who’d come out of retirement, who occasionally burped and sometimes farted, causing even the 8th year students to snicker. </p><p>“You and your partner will research your artifact, tracing its origins and the source of its magic,” he’d intoned. “You will write a report on your findings, complete with the method you’d choose for decontaminating this object, should you come across it in actuality. Ready? Let’s begin.”</p><p>Draco and Hermione’s artifact was a mysterious box covered in what looked like ancient Egyptian symbols. They’d reached for it at the same time, eager to begin exploring.</p><p>Twenty minutes later, the box was on fire.</p><p>Hermione almost laughed aloud, remembering their aged professor’s shout of “Fuck! This wasn’t supposed to happen!”  as students leapt from their desks, fleeing the DADA classroom under a cloud of noxious smoke. </p><p>In the hallway, she and Malfoy had leaned against each other, laughing fit to burst, and then joked about it for the rest of the term. Or at least, they’d joked until he got back together with his old girlfriend. </p><p>After <i>that</i> they’d worked quietly on the cursed ocelot’s paw that replaced the box, then wished each other well as 8th year ended, and gone their separate ways. </p><p>She’d rarely seen him since. So why the hell was he in her head tonight? </p><p>Hermione gathered her jacket and bag, dousing the lights of her office with a flick of her wand. The Proffitt-Edgerton report could wait until tomorrow. </p><p>Her job as financial liaison between the Ministry and the goblin banking system was a high-powered, prestigious position, one she’d long coveted. But maybe, just maybe, she’d let it become too all consuming. Maybe, in all practicality, she needed a holiday.<br/>
Hermione decided she really should think about that. She’d make an appointment with herself to think about it. Tomorrow. Or the next day? Or Thursday, two weeks from now....</p><p>At home and in bed, Hermione’s dream of Malfoy continued. ‘Fucking at its best’ was the only way to describe what they were doing. He was yelling her name; she was screaming his. They came at the same time, consumed by magic and fire.</p><p>Hermione sat up with a gasp and several choice expletives.</p><p>There was no way her excuse of “Malfoy’s my son’s favorite professor” could explain a dream like this.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>Hogwarts Castle, Twenty-four hours later</i>
  </p>
</div>“Are you sneaking out again tonight?”<p>“Yep.”  Astariel Malfoy, seated on the end of her bed, didn’t bother looking up from the parchment on which she was writing. </p><p>“If you get caught, you’ll be in so much trouble.” Propped against the headboard, Maeve Finnegan glared at her best friend.</p><p>“It won’t happen.” </p><p>“Will.”</p><p>“Will not.” </p><p>Starry shook her head, the lamplight glancing off her sleek, almost-black waves. “Leo and I are partners on our project for Papa’s class. If anyone sees us, we’ll just say we were going to ask him a question.”</p><p>“At <i>midnight?</i>”</p><p>“Brainstorms don’t happen at convenient hours, Maeve. Everybody knows that!” </p><p>Starry dipped her quill in the ink bottle balanced on her astronomy text and drew her name on the parchment. As usual, the S in Astariel was larger than the other letters. Perpendicular to the L, she added an E and an O to form the name of her first serious boyfriend.</p><p>They were fourteen (fifteen this September and October!). That wasn’t too young to know what one wanted. After all, Mum had been barely sixteen when she’d started dating Papa. Even though her parents hadn’t lasted as a couple, Starry intended to be with Leo forever. </p><p>There were spells for that. If you knew where to look.</p><p>Gathering her inkpot and quill, she set them on her desk and swirled her outdoor cloak through the air, landing it around her shoulders. She pulled the hood over her dark hair for good measure. </p><p>“There’s still half an hour ‘til lights out,” she told Maeve. “I’m leaving before the other girls come in. Stuff my bed for me, will you?”</p><p>“Won’t fool anyone.”</p><p>“Doesn’t matter. The others won’t tell. They all have crushes on Papa.” Her grin was wicked.  “So do you.” </p><p>“I don’t!” Maeve threw a wad of crumpled parchment at her friend. </p><p>“Yes, you do. But no worries. Your secret is safe with me!” </p><p>Laughing, Starry ran from the dorm room, crossed the Ravenclaw common area, and stepped into the hall.<br/>
No one was in sight. A good sign. Not that she would get into trouble. She had a definite feeling of freedom since Papa began teaching at Hogwarts. While she would never abuse her privileges as a professor’s daughter, it did give her a bit of prestige. She could get away with a few things. As long as she didn’t take things too far.</p><p>Starry ran down staircases and through dimly lit corridors until she saw Leo, standing by the statue of Dimwald the Delusional, where they sometimes met up. It was near enough to Papa’s office to provide an excellent alibi if they were seen. </p><p>As always, her heart beat faster when she saw Leo and her palms grew just the tiniest bit damp. He was so handsome. So… dreamy. His dusty brown hair was tipped with gold at the ends, almost as if he’d planned that deliberately (he hadn’t). He had blue eyes and skin that the summer sun turned golden, too. </p><p>Leo looked a bit like his Mum, not at all like his Dad, and most of all like his Great-Grandpa Granger, or so he’d told her. </p><p>That was easy to understand. Starry was the image of her own Mum, tiny and dark-haired. She looked nothing like her tall, blond father. Except for a certain pointiness of chin and the mostly-grey color of her blue-grey eyes. </p><p>“Hey,” Starry said to Leo.</p><p>“Hey, you.” He reached up and tweaked one curl where it lay just below her shoulder. “Think we should chance it?” He jerked his head toward the far end of the corridor, where a heavy door led to one of the castle’s many towers. </p><p>They were planning to stargaze, something they both liked. And to snog, something they liked even more.</p><p>“I brought my astronomy book as a cover. I say we go for it. Unless… you’re a candy arse?” she teased, glancing at him from beneath her lashes.</p><p>Leo scowled. “I am <i>not</i> a….”<br/>
“Silly. You know I’d like you even if you were.” Mischief managed, Starry stood on tiptoe. She brushed her lips across the corner of Leo’s mouth, her kiss lingering just long enough.</p><p>Leo reached for her as the door to her father’s office creaked slowly open. </p><p>Flattening themselves against the wall, the two of them held their breath. Blocked by Dimwald’s statue, they couldn’t be seen. But the risk was frightening. Exhilarating. And so, so worth it.</p><p>Astariel peered around the statue. She watched her father moving in the other direction, his black professor’s robes flaring, his hair glowing in the light of the evening lamps. </p><p>She loved her father, so very much! But at the moment, she loved Leo even more. </p><p>“Papa’s gone. Let’s go!”</p><p>Grabbing hands, Starry and Leo ran toward the doors of the outside tower. </p><p>They were halfway there when all the lamps suddenly went out. </p><p>The air seemed to shiver and time seemed to slow. As if somewhere, something strange and eldritch was walking over graves, invoking spells of arcane magic as it went.</p><p>The boy and girl vanished before they could even draw breath to scream.</p><p>The only sign that they’d ever been there was Starry’s astronomy textbook, lying face down on the flagstone floor of the darkened corridor.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Draco Malfoy’s head appeared in Hermione’s office fireplace the next afternoon, it seemed surreal for more than one reason.</p>
<p>In the first place, she’d just finished a very late lunch at her desk, having spent several hours in a verbal jousting match with Phineas Pangrim, chief financial officer of the Goblin Banking System. </p>
<p>“Jousting” was the only proper way to describe what happened in these monthly meetings. Phineas loved her because Hermione could match him blow-for-blow. If she were honest, she enjoyed their confrontations, too. But the sparring had left her mentally drained, struggling to wrap her mind around the fact that she was seeing Malfoy’s face in the flames.</p>
<p>In the second place she’d not seen in a long time. Not since their children had boarded the Hogwarts Express last autumn.  She and Draco didn’t move in the same circles. They weren’t adult friends. If they encountered each other, they simply nodded and smiled. Cordial but formal.</p>
<p>Then there was the third place. Those hot dreams. She might not have seen Malfoy for months, but the dreams were so graphic. So very real. </p>
<p>And here was the object of her lust, all done up in flame and embers, bringing it back to her in vivid, smoldering detail. </p>
<p>Pangrim, she could shove aside. Dream Malfoy and Real Malfoy were a different matter. Hermione’s face grew pink and she stared at her fireplace, open-mouthed.</p>
<p>The effect of a prettily blushing Granger with her mouth half open was not lost on Draco. Later, there might be time to ponder what <i>that</i> was all about. At the moment, he had more serious things on his mind. Much more serious.</p>
<p>“Hermione.” He gave a quick nod. “I don’t… I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll cut right to it. Your son Leo seems to be missing.”</p>
<p>“What??” Hermione half rose from her chair, the color draining from her face until it was as pale as the stack of parchment on her desk. “What do you mean, ‘missing’?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know what I mean just yet. I volunteered to tell you because my daughter, Astariel, is missing as well.”</p>
<p>“How long?”</p>
<p>“Since last night, apparently. Their dorm mates didn’t report it until this morning, when the pair failed to show up for classes. Even now, we’re not sure if there’s a problem. You know what kids are like at that age!”</p>
<p>Hermione was pacing now, her mind racing. “Yes. Yes, you’re right! Leo’s full of himself, for certain.” </p>
<p>She stopped and looked at Draco, her eyes wide with hope and pleading. “I remember Harry and Ron and me being all over the castle and the grounds at that age. In loads of places where we shouldn’t have been!”</p>
<p>“Just so. Starry— my daughter— is a bit of an adventurer herself. It’s likely nothing’s wrong. But McGonagall thought you should be informed. We’re all searching. Would you want to join us?”</p>
<p>“Absolutely. I can be there in an hour.”</p>
<p>“Good. That’s good.”</p>
<p>Their eyes met and held. </p>
<p>Hermione felt like an Eighth Year again, seriously attracted to a boy she knew liked her, but who, for some reason, ended up back together with another girl. Why would she think of that now, when Leo was missing? <i>Maybe</i>, a little voice suggested, <i>to stop yourself from blushing again about the other things. The very adult things you and Malfoy were doing in your dreams</i>.</p>
<p>Hermione longed to smack herself. Why was all of this in her head? Leo, and only Leo, was what mattered. It felt as if her brain and her emotions had been hijacked since last.night.</p>
<p>She said only, “Thank you, Draco. I’ll see you soon.”</p>
<p>His response was a long, intent look that left her wondering what sorts of thoughts were running through <i>his</i> head.</p>
<p>“You’re welcome,” was all he said. A quick nod, a brief sizzle, and he disappeared. </p>
<p>Hermione locked her office and spoke to her staff, mentioning only that she had a personal matter to see to. They didn’t question her. After the meetings with Pangrim, their boss often relaxed a bit, sometimes ordering in pizzas or joining them at the pub for a pint. Today, she looked rather frazzled. “Personal matter” might mean a glass of wine and a good nap. Or a good shag. They’d all agreed, on more than one occasion, that she could certainly do with one of those.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div>It started the minute Hermione stepped out of the fireplace in the Headmaster’s office at Hogwarts. A weird humming in Draco’s head. Not an actual sound, but a low key, unnamable <i>something</i> that quietly made its presence known.<p>Draco sensed it as he rose from his chair and stepped forward to greet her. He’d broken off from searching for their children only minutes before, to wait for Hermione’s arrival. Now here she was, all business proper, in that same pearl grey suit she’d been wearing when he’d Floo-called her earlier. Diamond studs still in her ears, her hair tamed into a sleek chignon. She looked good. And his head was humming. What the actual fuck?</p>
<p>It didn’t help that Draco’s first inclination had been to hug her. He’d even made a move to do so, but caught himself just in time. From the startled look on Hermione’s face, she’d noticed. Or possibly felt the same inclination? </p>
<p>What the bloody hell was happening? </p>
<p>They’d had a classmates’ friendship twenty years ago. No matter how great the attraction had been back then, they hadn’t ended up together. There was no reason for feeling compelled to hug now. </p>
<p>Just as puzzling was the way she was looking at him. Almost as if she <i>knew</i> things. Pleasant, secret things.</p>
<p>Whatever it was, they’d have to sort it later. At the moment, only their children mattered.</p>
<p>Draco quickly composed himself, focusing on the problem at hand.</p>
<p>He had no way to know that Hermione was doing the same, struggling to quell the sudden rush of feeling that had flooded over her upon seeing him in person. </p>
<p>She turned to the Headmistress, embarrassed that she’d barely noticed her standing there.</p>
<p>Professor McGonagall did give her a hug. “My dear,” she murmured, holding Hermione tightly for a few seconds. “I’m sure you must feel frantic. But there is no reason to believe any harm has come to either Leo or Astariel.”</p>
<p>“What… what happened? What can you tell me?” she said, to no one in particular. </p>
<p>“Well, we know how things started,” Draco replied. “What we don’t know yet is how they’ve ended up. Maeve Finnegan, Starry’s best friend, didn’t come forward right away because she didn’t want Starry to get into trouble.” His mouth tightened. “Same with Leo’s mates. Late this morning, they all had a confab and decided they’d better tell us. Starry and Leo sneaked out last night to spend some time together after hours. They never came back to their dorms. Seems your son and my daughter like each other.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Astariel and Leo are great friends. He’s told me so.”  Hermione nodded. </p>
<p>Draco’s mouth quirked in a way she couldn’t quite read. Annoyance? Amusement? A little of both? </p>
<p>“I’m told, and I quote, ‘Professor Malfoy, they <i>like</i> like each other. As in boyfriend and girlfriend.’”</p>
<p>“Oh.” Hermione was nonplussed. “But Leo’s only fourteen!”</p>
<p>“Starry as well. I’m not sure that matters.”</p>
<p>Hermione thought back to her own third year and how she’d already felt about Ron. “I suppose not,” she said quickly. “What else do we know? Did their friends say where they were going? What their plans were?”</p>
<p>Someone chose that moment to knock on the door. Minerva, who’d been silent until then, allowing the parents to talk, replied “Come.”</p>
<p>The door creaked slowly open and two students entered timidly. The shorter girl, the one with a headful of bouncy curls, Hermione recognized as Maeve Finnegan. </p>
<p>“We found this,” Maeve announced. “It’s Starry’s astronomy book.”</p>
<p>“Thank you, my dear.” Professor McGonagall took the book and handed it to Draco.</p>
<p>“Where was it?” he asked, reaching for the text and flipping through the pages as if they might tell him something about his daughter’s whereabouts.<br/>“On the floor, at… at the end of the hallway where your office is, Professor Malfoy.” Maeve was blushing, her crush-on-teacher plainly showing on her round, pretty face. “Maddy and I spent some time looking for Starry and Leo between classes this morning. We found it then. I know we should have brought it to you earlier…”</p>
<p>Hermione watched Draco’s face turn red with frustration at the delay. She felt quite the same, though she understood the reluctance of the students to get their friends into trouble.</p>
<p>“Thank you, girls,” Minerva said, herding the pair toward the door with one eye on Malfoy. “Later, we’ll want you to show us exactly where you found Astariel’s book. I’ll send for you.” </p>
<p>She shut the door firmly and then turned to Draco, who looked as if he might explode. </p>
<p>“I know you are both worried sick,” Minerva said, her voice soothing and practical. “But we’ve no reason at all to believe anything is wrong. Hogwarts is one of the safest places in all of wizarding Britain. Our world has remained secure since the end of the war. Your children are <i>here</i>. All is well, and we will find them!”</p>
<p>Hermione’s mind was busy with scenarios. Minerva was right. The spells and wards protecting Hogwarts had been increased five-fold since the disastrous time of Voldemort. In the Muggle world, human trafficking was a problem. But that had never been the case in the wizarding realms. Her son and Draco’s daughter were here, on the castle grounds. Perhaps trapped somewhere they weren’t meant to enter?</p>
<p>She watched Draco set Starry’s book on the desk, then shove his hands through his hair. He nodded at McGonagall. “Classes are over for the day. Even Quidditch practice has been cancelled. Everyone is searching. I’m going back to it. Hermione?”</p>
<p>“Yes. Let’s get started.”</p>
<p>A quick wave of her wand and her business attire turned to a loose, woven summer dress and sandals. Her hair tumbled free. Her diamond studs become hoops, her pearl drop necklace a crescent moon medallion with tiny, dangling stars. Hermione never forgot that she inhabited two worlds, magical-business and magical-magical.<br/>She couldn’t help noticing that Draco was watching her admiringly. </p>
<p>“We <i>will</i> find them.” Her words echoed McGonagall’s, as did her determination.  Tossing her head, she followed Draco to the door.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div>It should have felt awkward, standing in the corridor after the Headmaster’s door had closed behind them. At the very least, it should have felt odd. Or a bit uncomfortable.<p>Instead, it felt none of those things. Hermione and Draco turned as if they were of one mind and headed toward the stairs.</p>
<p>“We need to talk to Maeve Finnegan, yeah? Have her show us where she found my daughter’s book,” Draco said.</p>
<p>“My thoughts exactly. Do you know…”</p>
<p>Draco interrupted her with a sharp whistle, directed at a large gaggle of girls just coming off the staircase in the middle of the corridor. </p>
<p>“You lot!” he called. “I need to see Maeve Finnegan as quickly as possible.  Can I count on you to find her for me and send her to my office?”</p>
<p>“Of course, Professor Malfoy!”</p>
<p>“Right away!”</p>
<p>“We’re all worried about Starry and Leo!”</p>
<p>“Then do it and do it now.” He waved his hand and the group scattered. But not before sending a few glances and giggles in his direction.</p>
<p>Hermione smiled, remembering her long-ago crush on Professor Lockhart. Not surprising that some of Malfoy’s students would feel that way now. He was good-looking, from his lean, nicely muscled physique, to his pale, handsome face. </p>
<p><i>Which you’d very much like to sit on</i> her inner voice astutely noted.</p>
<p><i>Please shut up</i> Hermione told it, turning her head so that Malfoy wouldn’t notice her sudden blush.</p>
<p>“This way,” he told her as they reached the staircase. “I’m up two more flights.”</p>
<p>“I know Leo and Starry are class partners on a project for DADA,” Hermione told him as they climbed. “Could their disappearance have something to do with that?”</p>
<p>“I’ve thought it over, but I don’t see how. 3rd Year DADA is mostly an introductory course. We don’t get into the more complicated stuff until 5th year, really. No messing about with deactivated artifacts at their level.” He swung to face her with a sudden grin. “Do you remember…”</p>
<p>“Our Egyptian box, and how it caught on fire in the middle of class?” Hermione grinned back.</p>
<p>“And old McNeely letting out a string of swears while we all ran out of the classroom like Horntails were chasing us?” Draco gave a bark of laughter. “One of my favorite cockups, ever.” </p>
<p>“We laughed so hard that we almost fell over!” </p>
<p>Hermione was still laughing when she turned to Draco and saw that his smile had vanished</p>
<p>Almost as if he were remembering, as she suddenly was, that the laughter they’d shared on that long-ago day had been the end of it. The end of a friendship that had held the promise of something more. Something rich and fine and intriguing, that had never got properly off the ground. </p>
<p>Ancient history, Hermione, she told herself. Then why the irresistible pull toward him now?  And why is he looking at you like <i>that</i>?</p>
<p>No idea. It doesn’t matter. Only Leo matters And Starry. Hermione refocused on the present moment. “Draco… do you think our children are in real danger?”</p>
<p>He seemed almost relieved by her question. “Truthfully? No. I’m worried, and unsure what has happened. And I intend to have their heads when we find them. But I <i>do</i> think we’re going to find them.”</p>
<p>They were in front of his office now. Further down the corridor, they could see Maeve Finnegan standing in a spot near the doors to the outside tower. The news that she was needed had travelled fast.</p>
<p>“Over here, Professor Malfoy!” Maeve called, waving her arm. “This is where I found Starry’s book.”</p>
<p>Draco and Hermione joined her quickly, looking down at the spot where she pointed. But there was nothing to see. Only the bare, stone flagging. Not a scrap of paper, a thread of cloth, a fallen quill. Nothing.</p>
<p>“Are you sure this is the right place?” Draco asked Maeve as he crouched down and ran his hand over the floor. </p>
<p>Maeve nodded vigorously.</p>
<p>Suddenly, he needed Maeve to leave. He wasn’t sure why. It was just a thing that needed to happen, and happen right away.<br/>“Thank you,” Draco told her. “You’ve been a big help. We’ll want to talk to you again later, but for now, you may go.” </p>
<p>Draco looked up at Hermione as Maeve retreated down the corridor. </p>
<p>His head was humming now, low and insistent. More than he’d yet felt. Not a pain, but a thrum he couldn’t ignore. He couldn’t take his eyes off Granger, either. This was something to do with her. Draco knew it, though he had no idea how he knew it.</p>
<p>Whatever it was, it wasn’t tangible. It was magical. Old, deep, irresistible. Like a silver light that only the inner eye can see. It ran from the floor to his arm, to his chest, arcing across the space between them. Hermione’s eyes widened and he knew she’d felt it, too.</p>
<p>“Draco,” she breathed. “What just happened?”</p>
<p>“I… I don’t know. Truly, I’ve no idea!”</p>
<p>“Magic, of some sort. Did you feel it?”</p>
<p>“I did.”</p>
<p>“Do you think it has something to do with Leo and Starry?”</p>
<p>“Possibly.” Draco’s head was clearing now, but not as much as he would have wished. “It also felt… as if it has something to do with <i>us</i>.” The dream he’d had, which had never truly left him, came back with startling clarity. Hermione, walking on a wave, calling his name, holding a silver light… </p>
<p>They stared at each other.</p>
<p>Further speculation would have to wait. Two students were running toward them. </p>
<p>“Professor Malfoy!” one of the boys yelled. “Headmaster McGonagall sent us to find you. She said to tell you that Mrs. Flint is here.”</p>
<p>Mrs. Magnus Flint. Wife of Marcus Flint’s younger, equally-good-at-Quidditch brother. </p>
<p>Astoria Greengrass Flint. Draco’s ex-wife.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hermione…”</p>
<p>“Draco…”</p>
<p>“...whatever that was…”</p>
<p>“... what happened just now…”</p>
<p>Heading back to the Headmaster’s office, the two of them smiled as their words tumbled over and around each other. </p>
<p>Just like it used to be, when they were Eighth Year project partners. </p>
<p>Ideas came thick and fast back then. Both of them talking at once, their thoughts intersecting and joining, running toward some infinite horizon. They’d been a brilliant match in some ways.</p>
<p><i>In all ways, maybe,</i> Hermione thought.  <i>We just never quite got the chance to find out. Best to not think of that right now.</i></p>
<p>She focused instead on the strange magic they’d encountered in the corridor. Familiar. Maybe just because it was magic? And yet, not familiar at all. Big, big emphasis on ‘not.’</p>
<p>“That felt odd,” she finally said. “Mysterious.”</p>
<p>“Different, yeah? Almost, but not quite, dark.”</p>
<p>Hermione nodded. “Not like magic that we know. More like—”</p>
<p>“Magic that knows <i>us</i>,” Draco murmured.</p>
<p>Their eyes met and Hermione gave an involuntary shiver.</p>
<p>Draco’s mind was hard at work, trying to relate his dream of two nights ago to the feeling he’d had upstairs. Because there had to be a connection. He was sure of it. What he didn’t know was the how and the why. </p>
<p>He needed to speak with Hermione in detail, but right now there wasn’t time. And even if he had a thousand hours, he wasn’t quite sure what he’d say to this woman who’d once <i>almost</i> meant something to him.  </p>
<p><i>Granger, I dreamt about you. You were coming for me. Walking on a wave, glowing like starlight. Wearing a dress that made you look nearly naked…</i>  Not the sort of thing you tell someone whose connection to you is twenty years in the past.</p>
<p>So he stayed quiet as they descended the stairs, then shook his head and changed the subject. “I contacted Astoria right after I spoke to you, to tell her that Starry and Leo are missing. Will Ron be joining us?”</p>
<p>Hermione nodded. “Tomorrow, if we haven’t located the kids by then. Right now he’s halfway across the globe. Holiday with Lavender and their Terror Twins.”</p>
<p>Draco chuckled.  “I saw Ron with his girls once, in Diagon Alley. ‘Terror’ doesn’t begin to cover it. How old are they now?”</p>
<p>“Six. They’re like pint-sized versions of Fred and George— if Fred and George were half princess and all Chinese Fireball.”  </p>
<p>“Doesn’t sound as though your divorce was especially acrimonious.”</p>
<p>“No.” Hermione laughed. “But our marriage was! The divorce came as a huge relief. A little time apart, and we went back to being friends, like we always had been. I’m genuinely happy for Ron and Lavender.”</p>
<p>By then, they’d reached the door to Professor McGonagall’s office.</p>
<p>“Hermione.” Draco stopped with his hand on the doorknob and his eyes on her face. “Sooner or later, you and I need to talk.”</p>
<p>“Yes, we do.” </p>
<p>“The problem is, I’m not exactly sure what the bloody hell about! Or even where to start.” </p>
<p>“Agreed.”  </p>
<p>What was on his mind? She wondered. Did his thoughts run in the same circles as hers? The past. The now.  What if… he’d dreamt of <i>her,</i> as she had of him? Not bloody likely, of course. But with strange magic afoot, anything was possible.</p>
<p>“I only know that when we do talk, it needs to be private,” Draco said.</p>
<p>He was watching her closely. The look in his eyes, like grey clouds alive with hidden lightening, only heightened her curiosity. </p>
<p>“Better choose ‘later’ then.” Hermione smiled.</p>
<p> Draco smiled back, turning the doorknob, and they stepped into the Headmaster’s office.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div>There was no one in the office except Astoria Greengrass Flint. It wouldn’t have mattered if there had been a crowd of fifty others. Astoria had a quiet charisma that drew all eyes to her.<p>She was that combination of beautiful-but-cute that made her hard to dislike. Tiny, with a heart-shaped face, dark blue eyes, and an abundant cloud of black hair. </p>
<p>“Professor McGonagall had to leave,” Astoria said, stepping forward to shake Hermione’s hand. The two of them knew each other in the way that everyone who’d ever gone to Hogwarts knew everyone else. “A fight broke out in the Hufflepuff common room. Who would ever have guessed?” </p>
<p>She smiled, showing her dimples, then turned and went straight into Draco’s arms. As if she still belonged there.</p>
<p>Hermione watched them hug, thinking that she and Ron weren’t the only ones with a non-acrimonious divorce. </p>
<p>Astoria’s smile vanished as she gazed up at Draco with deep concern.</p>
<p>“Minerva filled me in. She assures me they can’t have gone far. Still, it’s hard not to worry!” </p>
<p>Stepping back from her ex, Astoria turned to Hermione. “You must be terribly worried, too! Starry’s told me so much about Leo. He’s her favorite friend.”</p>
<p>“If Starry’s gossiping school mates are right, Leo’s her boyfriend as well,” Draco broke in.</p>
<p>Astoria’s mouth made a pretty ‘O.’ “Well, that does put things in a bit of a different light. Starry will be fifteen in October. Old enough to be seriously ‘in like’ with someone.” That dimple again. “I remember those days. Do you, Draco? You were sort of dating Pansy. But noticing me.” She tweaked his sleeve playfully. “And then, you were dating me.” </p>
<p>“The whole bloody lot of us were too young to know what we were doing.” He chuckled.</p>
<p>“Perhaps we were.” Astoria sounded pensive. “Good memories all the same.” <br/>Hermione glanced at Draco. He gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher. Serious, with depths of hidden meaning.</p>
<p>Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. It felt claustrophobic, here in this room where Draco and his ex-wife stood quietly teasing each other about their past. </p>
<p>It shouldn’t hurt, she told herself. You and Malfoy were never more than friends, never more than class partners who’d spent only one single evening snogging.</p>
<p>Then why do I feel… odd. Uneasy. As if something went terribly wrong back then. Something that should have gone terribly right.</p>
<p>
  <i>I am losing my mind. Going round the twist at last. Anxiety about Leo, combined with overwork— yes, that’s it! Too much all at once. I’m having a panic attack, nothing more.</i>
</p>
<p><i>Hmmm. Maybe it’s panic. Or maybe it’s magic.</i>  Why did her inner voice always have to sound so insufferably smug? </p>
<p>There were no answers right now. Hermione only knew that she needed to be on her own, at least for a bit.</p>
<p>“If the two of you will excuse me,” she blurted. “I’ve just thought of something to check on about the kids! I’ll catch up with you later. There’s still so much area to cover!”</p>
<p>She darted out the door, ignoring the startled look on Draco’s and Astoria’s faces.</p>
<p>Closing the door behind her, Hermione leaned against it, breathing hard. She wiped her damp palms on her shirt and moved down the hall. Shaky hands, shaky steps. <br/>Panic. Magic.</p>
<p>That mysterious feeling from upstairs and her recent dreams of Malfoy swirled around inside her head, colliding with her memories of 1999. A time that suddenly felt very here-and-now in this enchanted castle that she’d once called home.</p>
<p>She remembered Draco’s stiff, formal apology at the start of term that September of Eighth Year. It wasn’t until early March, when the two of them were assigned as project partners for several classes, that they’d begun to talk. About their lives. About their choices. About the war and the choices that Draco hadn’t really had. </p>
<p>Hermione would never forget how she’d felt, the first time the words “I’m sorry” came out of his mouth. </p>
<p>They’d been sitting in the Hogwarts library late one evening, golden lamp glow pooling on the vellum pages of ancient texts and on the scarred, old wood of their table. </p>
<p>Those two words, and the look in Malfoy’s eyes when he’d said them, had changed everything. Like a quietly spoken incantation, breaking a curse that hovered over their earlier years and setting them both free. </p>
<p>After that, they grew into friends. Friends who shared laughter and ideas and conversation. And on just one magical night in early June, a very intense snogging session. She smiled, remembering. </p>
<p>Their time had been so very short.</p>
<p>Astoria had suddenly decided to get back together with Draco— even though it had been six months since he’d asked her to.</p>
<p> <i>That invitation must have been just a wee bit open-ended.</i> Hermione thought wryly. </p>
<p>Eighth year had come to a close. Life had moved on, carrying them in very different directions.</p>
<p>Until now, when a jumble of wild dreams, missing children, and strange magic brought her and Malfoy together again, full circle.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div>Hermione found herself standing in the corridor containing Draco’s office, on the spot where Maeve Finnegan had discovered Starry’s astronomy book.<p>While one part of Hermione’s brain had been busy reminiscing, another part had come up with a hopefully brilliant plan— the invocation of a complex, archaic tracing spell that she sometimes used for work, to locate gold and other goodies missing from the Gringott’s vaults. </p>
<p>Standing very still, Hermione closed her eyes, centering herself. She pressed one hand to her heart, thinking of Leo, and then released it. </p>
<p>Opening her eyes, she began incanting the complicated spell, her wand and the fingers of her left hand weaving mystical patterns in the air. </p>
<p>She moved forward, toward the doors of the outside tower. She moved back, in the direction that Leo and Starry would likely have come. She returned to the spot where Starry’s book had been dropped, circling it and chanting softly. </p>
<p>Finally, she stopped. Her voice, fingers, and wand stilled. </p>
<p>According to the spell, Starry and Leo had gone… nowhere. Not back the way they’d come. Not out onto the tower. They seemed to have vanished from the middle of the corridor, right where the astronomy book had landed.</p>
<p>Could the book have been a portkey? If so, then why hadn’t it gone to… wherever the kids had gone? And why would any portkey work within Hogwarts?</p>
<p>She needed to talk with Draco immediately and let him know what she’d discovered.<br/>Maybe he and Astoria were done with their own Remember When love fest by now. It was time to start seriously looking for answers.</p>
<p>Hermione descended the staircases purposefully, arriving outside the Headmaster’s door in time to hear voices coming from behind the rich, dark wood. Angry voices, shouting to be heard over one another.</p>
<p>“Why didn’t you <i>tell</i> me?”</p>
<p>“And why didn’t you tell <i>me?</i>”</p>
<p>“Fuck’s sake! I’ve no idea what…”</p>
<p>Draco. Astoria. And… Padma Patil?? </p>
<p>Padma had been Professor of Divination for a dozen years now. Hermione remembered a rumor, perhaps around last Christmas, that Padma and Draco were seeing each other. Nothing ever seemed to come of it.</p>
<p>Not bothering to knock, Hermione opened the door. </p>
<p>Three faces swung toward her. Draco’s had the look best described by the Muggle expression “a deer caught in the headlamps.” Padma and Astoria looked simply furious.</p>
<p>“Hermione.” Padma stepped forward, giving a curt nod.  “Perhaps you can clear something up for us.”</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
<p>“I wanted to help with the search. So I asked the stars for guidance in finding Leo and Astariel.”</p>
<p>“And?”</p>
<p>“I used my favorite gazing ball. The one I find most accurate. The ball told me nothing about the children. Instead, it told me something about you and Draco.”</p>
<p>“Wh... what?” Hermione stammered.</p>
<p>Padma’s dark eyes blazed coldly. She took another step forward.</p>
<p>“It says you and Draco are married.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hermione laughed. </p>
<p>She couldn’t help it.</p>
<p>Leo was missing; she was worried for him. They had few solid clues. Some sort of arcane magic could be in play, and old memories were buzzing about like a swarm of wasps around a jam sandwich. Add to that several months of overwork (self-inflicted, of course).  It was all too much.</p>
<p>So she laughed. And continued to laugh. </p>
<p>Staggering toward a unicorn-patterned wing chair and sinking into it, Hermione looked at last at the other three. They were all staring at her, with looks that ranged from quizzical, to annoyed, to pretty damned angry.</p>
<p>“Thank you, Padma. I needed that,” she said, rearranging her face into less jocular lines.</p>
<p>“The stars never lie!” Padma blurted.</p>
<p>“Of course they do! It’s all they ever do!” Hermione jabbed her finger toward the bank of windows, where a fiery sunset burnished the clouds with coppery light. “That lot spread out across the sky every night is nothing but a bunch of glittery sadists!”</p>
<p>“That doesn’t mean they lie!” Padma argued.</p>
<p>“Padma has a point,” Astoria added. “Prophecies have come true. Tea leaves predicted in Sixth Year that Draco and I…”</p>
<p>“Fine, you both have a point. But ‘married??’ That’s mental! I haven’t seen Draco for years, except in passing.  Not since we were project partners during Eighth Year.”  Her eyes flew to Draco’s. </p>
<p>He stood unsmiling, staring at her as if he were uneasy. “Thank you, Granger, for setting the record straight.” </p>
<p>Hermione studied him with interest. He looked as if… well, as if he almost believed there was some meaning within Padma’s insane claim. But then he would, wouldn’t he? The Malfoy/Black families came from ancient stock, their roots tangled deeply within the world of sorcery. They probably lived, breathed, ate, and slept only as divination ordered it. </p>
<p>Astoria was watching her curiously, head tilted to one side. Hermione directed her appeal to Draco’s ex, as one mum to another.</p>
<p>“We need to set aside the stargazing and focus on our children.”</p>
<p>“No,” Padma cut in, arguing for her craft.  “We need to create star charts for last night!  For Astariel and Leo. Divination has an instrumental role to play.”</p>
<p>“Padma, I know you’re trying to help. But Draco and I are clearly not married, no matter what the stars told you!  Right now, we need to do something less fu… less nebulous.”  Hermione very much wanted to say ‘fucking’ and ‘bat shite’ but she refrained, since she liked Padma.</p>
<p>“While you were gone, Madame Hooch popped in.” Astoria deftly changed the subject. “She’s sent the Quidditch teams to fly sorties over the grounds and the Forbidden Forest. Draco and I are going out to join them.”</p>
<p>Hermione remembered suddenly that schoolgirl Astoria had handled a broom like a Quidditch pro. She might have been a star player if her parents hadn’t ruled that 5’1” was too petite for safety.  Magnus Flint, her current husband, played chaser for the Tutshill Tornados.</p>
<p>“Coming, Draco?” his ex-wife asked, turning to leave the room.</p>
<p>“I’ll catch up with you. Need to talk to Hermione for a moment.”</p>
<p>Another curious look from Astoria. Then she shrugged, disappearing out the door.</p>
<p>“Padma, would you continue with the divination search?” Draco asked courteously.</p>
<p>“Of course.” Not looking at either of them, she followed Astoria.</p>
<p>Draco looked weary, paler than usual, his hair standing up in odd points where he’d run his hands through it. </p>
<p> In a flash of insight, Hermione suddenly knew that there were far more undercurrents in this room than she’d realized. </p>
<p>Astoria, his ex. Padma, whom he’d dated briefly a few months back. Herself, with whom there’d been an almost-something, though the gods alone knew what, twenty years ago. Above all, worry for his daughter. Tension, as she well knew, could be exhausting.  </p>
<p>She decided to take pity on him. Stepping over to the Fireplace, she Floo-called the kitchens and asked that tea and sandwiches be brought up to the Headmaster’s reception room. </p>
<p>“I’m not sure I can eat,” Draco told her, walking over to stare out the window at the glowing, western sky.</p>
<p>“But you will. We’re going to be searching into the night. We need to be as spot on as we can be, in all ways.”</p>
<p>While they waited, she filled him in on her use of the tracing spell where Starry’s book was found, and the results.  “I guess I could have shared this with Astoria, too. But it was you and I who felt the strange magic in that hallway upstairs. We agreed earlier that we needed a private discussion.”</p>
<p>“We also agreed that we had no idea where or even how to start.” He sighed, sinking into the wing chair that faced hers and then slouching there, like a boneless, Siamese cat. “Did you sense any of that odd magic when you went upstairs alone?”</p>
<p>“Not a bit. Perhaps both of us are needed for it to… come to life? I’m not even sure how to put that!”</p>
<p>“Or maybe it was just a one-off. You and I need to go back soon and see if we feel it the second time around. Minerva’s already examined Starry’s book. There’s no sign of any tampering or dark enchantments. It’s just a school book.”</p>
<p>A house-elf slipped in then, unobtrusively setting a tea tray on a small table between the two chairs. Hermione poured a cup for Draco, one sugar, squeeze of lemon, no milk, and handed it to him.</p>
<p>“You remembered how I like it. After all this time.”</p>
<p>She tapped the side of her head. “A mind, as they say, like a Venus Flytrap.”</p>
<p>"Yeah, I remember! Snapping up everything within its reach and then some,” he teased, taking a large bite out of the sandwich he’d claimed not to want.</p>
<p>“So. Leo and Starry <i> could</i> have disappeared where her book was found. The problem is, I don’t see how! Portkeys don’t work inside Hogwarts, and they certainly don’t work if left behind by the users. Since Minerva’s already checked the book for other spells, we can rule it out.” Hermione dunked a ginger biscuit inelegantly into her cup of tea. “That leaves only the magic you and I felt in the corridor. Ancient, strong, unfamiliar.”</p>
<p>“It seemed to be connected to us. But did it actually affect our kids?” Draco asked. “Any theories? Suppositions? Educated guesses?”</p>
<p>“Hmm. Well, you and I had a connection as Eighth Years. Somewhat like Starry and Leo do now as Third Years. They are partners and friends. You and I were...” </p>
<p>Just what, exactly? Certainly partners, certainly friends, and certainly there’d been an indefinable hint of <i>more</i>, just waiting to be discovered. Suddenly she wasn’t quite sure of what to say.</p>
<p> “Don’t forget. According to Padma, we’re married.” Draco’s eyes held a playful gleam. It vanished as quickly as it had come, replaced by a look of cautious resolve.</p>
<p>“Hermione, listen,” he said. “I… I’ve thought of you often since Eighth Year. Not at the level Padma was suggesting, of course.” A wry, quicksilver grin. “But back then, I…  <i>liked</i> you. I don’t know what else to call it.” </p>
<p>“Me, too.”  She smiled. “Me, either.”</p>
<p>He gazed at her, his hands spread. “It sounds so cliched to say we almost had something. What the hell does that even mean?  ‘Something’ is simply the vague opposite of ‘nothing.’”</p>
<p>“Except that it isn’t, Draco. The opposite of ‘nothing’ is ‘everything.’” </p>
<p> It was on the tip of Hermione’s tongue to tell him that she’d dreamt of him and then to ask if her dream, coupled with what she’d come to think of as ‘The Magic Upstairs,’ could be somehow connected.</p>
<p>But the door opened just then. Astoria, dressed in flying gear and looking adorably cute, stepped back into the room.</p>
<p>She glanced at the tea things on the small table, the remnants of the light meal they’d just shared. So cozy, with the sunset glowing like a hearth fire outside the windows.</p>
<p>“Here. Catch this.” She tossed a pair of flying gloves to Draco, along with a quick smile. “I thought you might need these this evening.”</p>
<p>“Thanks.” He caught the gloves one-handed, like the Quidditch Seeker that he’d been, then undid the clip that held them together. </p>
<p>It occurred to Hermione that he likely had plenty of flying gloves of his own, in the quarters here at Hogwarts where he actually lived.</p>
<p>“There’ll be daylight for another couple of hours,” Astoria said unnecessarily. “We can cover quite a bit of ground before nightfall, if we start right now. Are you ready?”</p>
<p>Draco looked at Hermione, as if trying to convey things without words, things that she couldn’t quite decipher.  “Keep formulating theories,” he told her, moving toward Astoria.“We’ll talk more later.” </p>
<p>And then she understood. He had a keen interest in the magic they’d felt upstairs and what it might mean. But just now, he needed something concrete. Something active to do. To be high in the open air astride a broom, purposefully scouring the ground below. <i>Seeking.</i></p>
<p>A small sound at the door. Padma was back, standing quietly, watching all of them. Astoria and Draco nodded to her as they headed out to join the searching Quidditch teams.</p>
<p>Padma glided into the room. “Hermione,” she began.</p>
<p>“Oh, Padma! Look, I’m really sorry about earlier. You know I’ve never loved divination! And I know you were doing your best to try to help us.”</p>
<p>The other witch nodded and gave a small smile. “It’s fine.  You’re under such a huge amount of strain. I do remember, from our Hogwarts’ years, that you fought divination like it was some sort of Dementor.”</p>
<p>“And usually lost,” Hermione laughed. </p>
<p>“Listen, I’m working on a star chart for Leo for yesterday and I need his exact time of birth. That’s never listed in the school records.”</p>
<p>“Of course. 11:20 a.m. The day of the week was Monday. And you have September 15th as his birthday?”</p>
<p>Padma nodded. “Thanks.”   She turned to leave, then lingered hesitantly in the doorway. “Hermione.”</p>
<p>Something in her tone made Hermione look up from where her gaze had wandered to the flaming, twilight sky. Watching for two broom riders, maybe, flying out together to join the others?</p>
<p>“Yes?”</p>
<p>“Astoria is a Scorpio. They...  don’t let go. To a Scorpio, what was once hers is <i>always</i> hers. Even when it’s long over. Just saying.” She shrugged. “I’ll be in my classroom, if you need me for anything.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div>Hermione found Starry’s astronomy book lying on Minerva’s desk. She double-checked it for charms, for curses, for darkness, for anything that might give her a clue to Leo and Starry’s whereabouts.<p>Failing, she went in search of Minerva. The two of them spent the evening and much of the night casting spells throughout the old castle. </p>
<p>Hogwarts was known, on rare occasions, to make changes to itself. There had never been a case of anyone disappearing after one of those changes, but there was a first time for everything. After all, the castle had once housed a mile-long snake that no one knew about. Not actually a mile long, Hermione reminded herself, but there was a point to be taken here about secret places and hidden things.</p>
<p>At 3 a.m., she stretched out on a bed in the opulent Hogwarts guest quarters on the fifth floor. <br/>She assumed Draco and Astoria were doing the same by now. In separate locations.</p>
<p>The Quidditch teams had stayed out until the wee hours, casting amplified <i>Lumos</i> spells to search from the air and sometimes flying low to the ground to weave like pale blue fireflies among the trees of the Forbidden Forest. </p>
<p>The Headmistress continued to comb the castle. Throughout the evening, she’d periodically resorted to her cat form for tiny naps. She insisted she wasn’t tired and would search all night.</p>
<p>Hermione lay exhausted, but sleep refused to come. She wondered where Leo was at this very moment and if he were afraid or injured. Somehow, she didn’t believe that. Her maternal instincts told her all was well for both himself and Starry. It was just down to finding them, that was all. An hour of rest and she could begin again. </p>
<p>In the DADA professor’s quarters, atop its Jacobean-era bed, Draco lay fully clothed, spread-eagled, and gasping for air. He sat up slowly, with a moan. He’d been asleep for half an hour at best. And he’d dreamt of Granger again. </p>
<p>She wasn’t walking on the waves this time. She was perched on top of him, gloriously naked, and he’d buried himself inside her, to the hilt. The dream had been brief but so damned vibrant. Her wildly tangled hair falling around her shoulders and over her breasts, her creamy skin, the way it felt to be fucking her. </p>
<p>Quick impressions, nothing more. As real as if it had actually happened. As familiar as if it had happened many times-- with no time ever being quite enough.</p>
<p>No use trying to suss out what the bloody hell <i>that</i> was all about. His head was throbbing too insistently for coherent thought.  So was his cock. Groaning, Draco reached out his hand to finish what dream-Granger had started. </p>
<p>In what was known as the Elizabethan guest room, Hermione had dozed off at last. The rise and fall of her breathing mirrored the rise and fall of the ocean wave on which she found herself walking. </p>
<p>The moon cast its golden glow across the water, the Milky Way poured from above in a never-ending stream of stars. One star seemed to have fallen into Hermione’s hand. She cupped it carefully, following the curve of the waves flowing toward the beach. The midnight breeze, damp and salty, caressed her skin, the tops of the waves felt cool and foamy beneath her feet.</p>
<p>From her position out on the water, she could see someone sitting in the sand at the shoreline. Draco, waiting for her. She was late, very late. But she was coming at last. </p>
<p>He stood, and Hermione noticed for the first time what was behind him. In the dark distance, the full moon glinted on a set of distinct shapes. Obsidian, slick as glass, they caught the moonlight and threw it back, the stars winking as if at some lovely, cosmic joke. </p>
<p>Pyramids. Standing mysteriously on the horizon, tall and black beneath a midnight-blue sky.</p>
<p>The moon dipped behind a cloud just then, and Hermione suddenly woke up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The enchanted sky over the Great Hall was awash in soft morning colors, gold and pink, pale blue and rose-tinted silver.</p>
<p>Hermione had meant to sleep for only two hours but exhaustion had taken over, turning two hours to three. At 6 a.m. she’d come down to request an early breakfast. The house elves were already hard at work anyway, magicking about the kitchen in preparation for a horde of hungry students.</p>
<p>Her meal finished, she sat alone sipping coffee at one of the long tables, and watching Draco walk toward her across the cavernous old room. Thank the gods Astoria wasn’t with him. She needed some alone time with Malfoy and some honesty that she might not get if his ex-wife were present. </p>
<p>As he came toward her, she felt, suddenly and completely, a sense of well-being. Their kids were fine, wherever they were. It was down to no one but her and Draco to find that ‘wherever.’</p>
<p>She couldn’t wait to tell him her latest thoughts.</p>
<p>“There’s no word on Starry or Leo?” he asked without preamble, taking a seat on the bench opposite her. </p>
<p>“None.” She shook her head. “But I’ve thought of something we need to investigate.” </p>
<p>A mug of coffee appeared in front of Draco. Hermione watched him add cream and sugar, then begin stirring. She’d always liked his fingers. Long, nimble, good for plucking Snitches out of the air. Good for other things too, no doubt.</p>
<p>Better set that aside for now. “I know it sounds like the worst sort of divination drivel, but… I had a dream last night and I wondered if it could be somehow pertinent. A very vivid dream. You were in it.”</p>
<p> Draco looked up just then, in the act of lifting his mug to his lips. Two spots of pink appeared on his cheeks and grew until they matched the rosiness of the charmed sky over their heads.</p>
<p>Hermione was quick to notice. Could he have… what if he… Suddenly all thought of discussing her midnight walk on the water flew out of her head. Instead, her mind went straight to the dream she’d had earlier in the week. </p>
<p>“Draco,” she blurted. “Did you… did you dream about me? I mean, <i>dream</i> dream. As in, us. Together? Because I… well, not last night but two nights ago, I… we were...” Now she was the one blushing, fumbling her words like mad.</p>
<p>Draco’s mouth quirked at one corner. That was quickly replaced by a full-on smile. Brilliant, like the sun breaking through morning clouds. </p>
<p>“All honesty? I did.”</p>
<p>And suddenly Hermione relaxed.  This was Malfoy, her Eighth Year partner with whom she’d laughed and studied and talked and joked. It felt unbelievably comfortable, just as it had back then. For the second time in twenty-four hours, the years fell away as if they’d never been.</p>
<p>“Well? Was it good?” she asked.</p>
<p> “It was brilliant. You?”</p>
<p>“Ridiculously good. Personal best.”</p>
<p>They sat grinning at each other. </p>
<p>“You do realize we’re discussing dreams, right?” he asked, grabbing the croissant she had chosen not to eat. “Those things that happen in our heads at night, but in reality haven’t happened at all?”</p>
<p>“I know.” She laughed. “Except maybe, they’re things that just haven’t happened <i>yet</i>.” </p>
<p>“Careful, Granger.” Over his mug of coffee, he was watching her with a hint of hunger in his smile. “That does sound dangerously like a prediction.”</p>
<p>“Or simply dangerous, period,” she murmured and then changed the subject. “But it’s the dream I had last night that I want to talk to you about.”</p>
<p>“Let me guess. Not as sexy?”</p>
<p>“Mmm. Not as graphic. But so real! Weirdly, I was walking on the ocean, walking over the water, coming toward…”</p>
<p>“Me.” Draco’s sat up straighter, his eyes glued to hers.</p>
<p>“In my hand, I had…”</p>
<p>“A silver light.”</p>
<p>“Draco?” Her eyes widened. Her voice faltered.</p>
<p>“This is what I dreamt two nights ago! It must have been the night you were dreaming about...  us.”</p>
<p>“Close your eyes,” she commanded excitedly.  “Let’s see if you can remember details. I want to compare the two dreams.”</p>
<p>Draco obeyed, his words muffled around the bite of croissant he’d just taken. “I remember damp sand, cool breeze, the stars and moon very bright.” He stopped and chewed thoughtfully. “And your hair—  it was as wild as Medusa’s snakes. You looked beautiful, by the way.”</p>
<p>“Thanks. Did you turn around?”</p>
<p>“Why would I do that? You weren’t coming up behind me.”</p>
<p>“Is that all you remember?”</p>
<p>“Well, your dress was rather transparent.” He smiled and opened his eyes.</p>
<p>“Then, you didn’t see the pyramids.”</p>
<p>“Pyramids?”</p>
<p>“On the far horizon, across the sand. They looked like Egyptian pyramids. Tall, pointed.”</p>
<p>“Granger, this is mad as all fuck!  Strange magic that only we can feel. Similar dreams, except that yours had pyramids.”</p>
<p>“<i>Egyptian</i> pyramids. I don’t have any personal connection to Egypt. Do you?”</p>
<p>“None whatsoever.” Draco’s eyes widened. “But you and I do, together.”</p>
<p> Hermione nodded. “Our Eighth Year project— the box that caught on fire— was Egyptian! We need to find it.”</p>
<p>“Easily done.”  He suddenly looked a bit sheepish. “I have it in my office.”</p>
<p>“What?? Why…”</p>
<p>“Let’s go.”  Draco rose from the table, grabbing Hermione’s hand and pulling her up with him. </p>
<p>Several students, trickling in for early breakfast, noticed Professor Malfoy striding out of the Great Hall hand-in-hand with Leo Granger-Weasley’s mum. By lunch time, the whole school would know.</p>
<p>“Why is our box in your office?” Hermione asked, breathless from trying to keep up with Draco.</p>
<p>“Dark artifact. DADA professor. Why wouldn’t I have it?”</p>
<p>“But why is it in your office and not a storage room?”</p>
<p>“Maybe I’m a bit sentimental, alright? Maybe I remember our Eighth Year partnership as something special. Listen, could we not talk about this right now?”</p>
<p>By now they were at the stairs and Draco was stomping upward, still holding Hermione’s hand in his.</p>
<p>“Sentimental? About <i>us</i>? But you got back together with Astoria. You kissed me, but got back together with her!”</p>
<p>“Yeah, well. I was eighteen,” Draco muttered.  “I’m a lot brighter now.”</p>
<p>The two of them had reached his office door. Draco dropped Hermione’s hand and they glared at each other. And then burst out laughing.</p>
<p>“We’re arguing like a couple of school kids,” he chuckled. “Ridiculous as fuck.”</p>
<p>“About something that happened twenty years ago.”  She smiled. “Sorry. I’m being childish.”</p>
<p>“No, you’re not. We’ll talk more later. I think it’s needed. But for now…” </p>
<p>He unlocked the door and allowed Hermione to precede him into what she saw as a most intriguing space. The morning sun poured in through wide windows, giving the office a light and airy feel. It was scrupulously neat, except for books piled here and there on chairs and tables. All around the walls were shelves and shelves of odd artifacts. Every one of them dark at one time or another, no doubt.</p>
<p>Draco followed her gaze. “Some of these belong to Hogwarts,” he told her. “But some of them are mine. I collect them, you know. The box is over here.”</p>
<p>It sat near the windows in the middle of a shelf, the wood of one corner still charred and darkened from its encounter with fire twenty years ago. Even deactivated, nothing about the box felt innocuous. It had a presence. Ancient, enigmatic, eldritch, and vast. Across the lid, Egyptian symbols aligned themselves. Some, like the Eye of Horus, were readily recognizable. Others, not at all.</p>
<p>“It’s quite heavy.” Draco carried the box over and set it on his desk.</p>
<p>“Dreams. Strange magic. And now <i>you</i>.” Hermione reached for it, running her hands over the symbols on the lid and then prying it carefully open.</p>
<p>Then she saw what was inside. </p>
<p>The blood drained from her face and her heart thudded painfully in her chest. All her happy intuitions that Leo and Starry were all right vanished like smoke. If this box were somehow connected to their disappearance, then <i>nothing</i> was all right. </p>
<p>The box itself was empty. But painted on the interior of the lid were two undeniably Egyptian deities. Their full images, ominous and mysterious, stood facing one another, the right hand of one touching the left hand of the other, their feet splayed in that odd stance favored by ancient Egyptian artists.</p>
<p>Anubis and his wife, Anput. The jackal-headed god and goddess of death.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div>Hermione reached out her finger toward the painted image of Anput. <i>As if touching the goddess of death might make her somehow less intimidating. </i><p>“I hadn’t thought our kids were in danger,” she told Draco. “But now, I’m not so sure! Did you know this was inside the lid?” </p>
<p>Draco nodded. “You and I never opened the box in Eighth Year DADA. We were still exploring the symbols on the outside when the fire happened, remember?” He sat down on the corner of his desk and thwacked the box. “I found it in a storage cabinet in my classroom last fall. Checked it over thoroughly then for traces of dark magic.” </p>
<p>“Anubis and Anput look as though they’re painted on some sort of tile.”</p>
<p>“Stone, fitted to the inside of the lid. That’s why it’s so heavy.”</p>
<p>The morning sun seemed incongruous against the dark, weighty presence of the box. It was more suited to midnight skies full of icy stars, tauntingly distant and unattainable. </p>
<p>Just like the mysterious place beside the ocean that they’d both seen in their dreams. </p>
<p>“Did Leo and Starry ever come into contact with our box?”  Hermione asked.</p>
<p>“Not that I know of. But it wouldn’t matter if they had. It’s been completely cleansed and neutralized. I made damn certain of that before I brought it to my office.”</p>
<p>“It has to mean something, though. It’s the third thing that connects us.” She ran one finger along the edge “And it’s beautiful! The colors of the painting are still so fresh.”</p>
<p> Draco brushed his fingers lightly along the other side.</p>
<p>The feeling of magic hit them both at once. The same feeling they’d had in the spot where Starry’s book was found. Something potent, old, and deep. Rife with mysteries that would never be solved because they were never meant to be. </p>
<p>Silver light spat and fizzed like sparklers against the box’s dark-hued interior wood.</p>
<p>“Watch out! It’s going to catch on fire again!” Draco leapt up, fighting past the humming in his head and slamming the lid as Hermione jumped out of the way.</p>
<p>“I thought you said it was deactivated!”</p>
<p>“Bloody hell! I thought it was!”</p>
<p>“That’s the same strange magic from before! I think maybe… I wonder if… it needed both of us to set it off.” Hermione struggled to process her thoughts over the insistent humming in her head. “Somehow, this has to connect to our kids, too.  But how?”</p>
<p>“Come on.” Draco scooped up the box and cradled it carefully in his arms. “As long as you don’t touch me, I should be safe to carry it.” He headed for the office door with Hermione on his heels.</p>
<p>“Where are we going?”</p>
<p>“To see Padma. Don’t argue with me. We need answers that can at least point us in the right direction. There’s magic at work here that …  I can’t describe it, Granger. Vast, ancient, and maybe dangerous. A complete unknown.”</p>
<p>“Books, research! The library…”</p>
<p>“Perfect in most situations. But not when our kids are missing! If this is outside of what we know, then it might be outside of what <i>anyone</i> knows.”</p>
<p> “I just can’t grasp how it involves Leo and Starry! Or Anubis and Anput!” Hermione shivered, then suddenly made up her mind. “If Divination could give us a start, then Divination it is.”</p>
<p>‘You agreed to that so quickly.”  Draco grinned at her over the top of the box. “Glad you decided to see it my way.”</p>
<p>“Yes, well. Desperate times and all that.  No need to talk about it, Malfoy. Let’s hurry!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The door to the Divination classroom stood open. Inside, Hermione could see Padma, elegant and tall, side by side with tiny, cute-beautiful Astoria. They were standing by one of the tables, their dark heads bent together over several sheets of parchment. </p>
<p>Both women looked up as she and Draco entered.</p>
<p>“There you are!” Relief flashed across Padma’s lovely features. “Astoria and I have been working on your children’s star charts from the night they disappeared. And we found something significant. It seems that…” Noticing the box in Draco’s arms, she stopped mid-sentence. “Oh, what have you got?” </p>
<p>Draco set the box on the end of the table. “Not sure. We were hoping <i>you</i> could tell <i>us</i>.”</p>
<p>Astoria touched Draco’s sleeve, glancing at Hermione as she did so. “Padma’s created horoscopes for Starry and Leo, for the night they went missing. She’s uncovered an event of some sort, in both their charts!”</p>
<p>“I’m not sure what sort of event I’m seeing there,” Padma told them, her eyes on the box now, her hands running over its dark surface. “But it was portentous.”</p>
<p>“Dangerous?” Draco asked.</p>
<p>“I’m not certain just yet.”</p>
<p>“Thank you, Padma.”</p>
<p>“Of course.” She glanced at Draco quickly, then returned to examining the symbols on the outside of the box. “I’m guessing this artifact was dark at one time?”</p>
<p>Draco nodded. “Hermione and I were eighth year DADA partners. This box…”<br/>“Caught on fire! I was in that class! Everyone running, screaming, Professor McNeely swearing.” Padma laughed, picking up her wand and touching the box with it. The lid slowly opened.  </p>
<p>“We think it might link somehow to Starry’s and Leo’s disappearances.” Hermione shivered. “And we’re wondering about these images of Anubis and Anput, with their connections to death!”</p>
<p>“They’re beautiful.” Padma was staring at the painted god and goddess, a puzzled look on her face. Suddenly, she smiled. </p>
<p>And then she laughed. </p>
<p>She laughed as if she couldn’t stop, loudly and long enough that Hermione began to be annoyed. Which wasn’t really fair, since <i>she</i> had laughed at Padma’s divination results, just the night before.</p>
<p>“What’s so funny?” Hermione asked.</p>
<p>“The stars never lie! I <i>told</i> the two of you that you were married! Or were meant to be married, if you hadn’t royally effed things up!”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?” Astoria sounded offended.</p>
<p>“This isn’t some sort of dire, death-associated box.” Padma chuckled. “It’s a binding cabinet.”</p>
<p>“Please explain.” Draco kept his voice even, though his temper was beginning to fray around the edges. </p>
<p>“Of course.” Padma gave a final giggle. “Forgive me. I love it when Divination proves correct! As for the binding cabinet… In most ancient cultures, the marriage alliances of the privileged were serious affairs, meant to ensure the continuation of their powerful dynasties.”<br/> She touched the cabinet again, a look of admiration on her face. “Wealthy parents would have astrologers create birth charts of their sons and daughters. The charts went into the cabinet during the betrothal ceremony. Astrologers then incanted spells of success, often invoking dark magic to make the binding even stronger. To make the marriages lasting and prosperous!”</p>
<p>“But Anubis and Anput?” Hermione broke in.  “The god and goddess of <i>death</i>?” </p>
<p>Padma laughed again. “Death?” she shook her head. “Nothing so dire. Anubis and Anput are the jackal-headed gods. Jackals mate for life! In the case of your binding cabinet, Anubis and his wife are added insurance for a successful alliance. Likely between the son and daughter of two very powerful, perhaps even royal, families.”</p>
<p>She looked up then and her dark eyes sparkled. “Somehow, in eighth year, the two of you activated the spell. The ancient magic woke up. And bound you to each other!”</p>
<p>At Padma’s side, Astoria made a disgruntled, strangled noise.</p>
<p><i>Really, Mrs. Flint?</i> Hermione thought. <i>You absolutely cannot have everyone.</i></p>
<p>“But why did our children disappear?” Draco asked.</p>
<p>“We all know that magic invoked as a contract requires fulfillment of some sort. I admit I’m guessing, but when the two of you failed to marry each other within a certain amount of time, you were hit with a penalty. Your eldest children were forfeit.” Padma looked suddenly distraught. She had a child of her own, a son in fifth year. “I’m so sorry!”</p>
<p>She turned to the three white-faced parents.</p>
<p>“But where are Starry and Leo? Who has them?” Astoria wailed.</p>
<p>“I don’t know.” Padma spread her hands. “Some ancient deity? I can’t be sure. I was never an Egyptian in any of my past lives!”<br/>Draco looked at Hermione. Both of them seemed to realize it at the same time— the likely probability that Starry and Leo had somehow been transported to a magical location. A place of stars and sand, crashing waves and distant pyramids.</p>
<p>The binding in eighth year may have been accidental, but the spell that set things in motion was <i>real.</i>  An idea was forming in Draco’s mind. A way to get to that place under the vast night sky, with pyramids that only Hermione had seen. But to try it out, the two of them needed to be alone. </p>
<p>“Padma. Astoria,” he said now. “Since we’ve no notion of what might work, I’d like to do an experiment of sorts. Hermione and I seem to be bound and inadvertently responsible for this mess, so it needs to involve only the two of us.”</p>
<p>Astoria scowled. “But it’s <i>our</i> daughter that is missing. I should be…”</p>
<p>“No, Draco’s right.” Padma interrupted. “Whatever he has in mind, the spell that tied him to Hermione is between the two of them only. They have to be the ones to sort this.”</p>
<p>Astoria’s gaze flitted to Hermione, then back to Draco. She seemed about to argue again, then suddenly capitulated. “All right. I’m going to Floo call Magnus and update him.”</p>
<p>“Padma, could you do the same for Ron?” Hermione asked. “He needs to know we’re on the right track and will have information soon.”</p>
<p>Padma nodded and Hermione followed Draco from the room, leaving a somewhat sullen Astoria to watch them walk away.</p>
<p>“She thinks she still wants me, you know.” Draco said as they headed down the corridor. “She doesn’t, not really. Magnus is good for her. It’s just that things out of reach always tantalize Astoria. Hermione…” He took her hand and twined her fingers with his. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about this for a long time. For years, in fact.”</p>
<p>“All right.” <br/>Maybe she should stop him from talking. Return their focus to their kids. But he seemed to have a plan and to know where they were going. And Hermione very much wanted to hear the rest of what he had to say. </p>
<p>“Eighth year. I’d been broken up with Astoria for two months when you and I became partners. I’d asked her back, she’d said no, and I thought that was that.”</p>
<p>“But it wasn’t.” </p>
<p>Draco shook his head. “I was startled when Astoria approached me about finally getting back together.  By then it was June and I… had begun to have feelings for you. I didn’t really think it through. Fuck’s sake, I was only 18! She was familiar, part of my world. You… you were new. Exciting. Dangerous. Unlike anyone I’d known before.”</p>
<p>Hermione had to smile at the thought of her bookworm self being “dangerous.”</p>
<p>“As I said, I didn’t think it through at all. My family approved. Hers, too. It just… seemed like the right move at the time. You and I hadn’t really <i>started</i> anything. We were sort of tiptoeing around each other.”</p>
<p>“Until that night you kissed me.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, well. I’ve never forgotten that, either.”</p>
<p>“Nor have I.” She chuckled. “Where are we going, by the way?”</p>
<p>“Room of Requirement.”</p>
<p>“Draco, that’s brilliant! I’ve never heard of the Room providing access to an imaginary land. But the place we both dreamt of might actually exist somewhere!  It’s worth a try!”</p>
<p>He grinned. “Well, it’s probably the best two not-married, married people can do.”</p>
<p>By then they’d reached the seventh floor and were standing opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and his dancing trolls. </p>
<p>In spite of the morning sun streaming in through windows further along, the corridor was dim. </p>
<p>“You know the drill, right?” Draco said. “Walk past three times, thinking about what we need, and the door should appear. Let’s focus on that place from our dreams.”</p>
<p>Three tries later, there was no door. </p>
<p>“What now?”</p>
<p>“This.” Draco pulled Hermione into his arms. “We’ve been waiting twenty years for this. And we didn’t even know it.” </p>
<p>He bent his head and kissed her.</p>
<p>It felt like being 18 and being 38, all at once. Hungry and yearning and excited, yet comfortable and safe and warm. New but familiar. Always together, but discovering each other for the first time. </p>
<p>Draco kissed her eyes, her neck, his hands tangling in her hair. It was bliss and Hermione reveled in it. He murmured against her mouth, softly spoken words in a language she didn’t recognize. A spell of some sort. </p>
<p>“Is that something dark?” she breathed, as he nipped her neck and slid his fingers over her nipples.<br/>“It is. I know many things that maybe I shouldn’t,” he murmured in her ear. “Do you trust me, Hermione?”</p>
<p>“Yes.” Her head was humming, the spell was taking hold, she could barely think.</p>
<p>He had backed her against the wall by then. She could feel that a door was behind her. The door they needed, to the Room of Requirement. </p>
<p>Draco fumbled for the knob. The door opened with a <i>whoosh</i>, and they tumbled inside, into a land of vast, dark sky and midnight stars.</p>
<p>Hermione felt herself torn from Draco’s arms by what felt like a hurricane wind. She whirled away with a shriek.</p>
<p>And suddenly, the world righted itself. </p>
<p>She was on top of the waves. Bare feet, gossamer Egyptian gown. Just like the dreams. She was walking toward the shoreline where Draco stood waiting for her. </p>
<p>The sky above arched blue-black and brilliant with stars, the moon riding high above it all.</p>
<p>A silver orb hovered over her left hand. Light glinted on the water and she could see the pyramids in the distance, tall and mysterious. Were their children there? Of course. Where else would they be?</p>
<p>She only knew she had to get to Draco first, and all would be well.</p>
<p>He was wading out to meet her now as the waves brought her to him. Closer. Closer. <i>There.</i><br/>He reached for her and she sank into the warm ocean, the water foaming around them. The orb in her hand exploded into a shower of silver sparks that rained onto their heads like an ancient blessing.</p>
<p>They struggled back to the shore, shedding clothes as they went, and fell onto the sand. </p>
<p>“Draco,” she gasped.</p>
<p>“Hermione. Finally, Hermione.”</p>
<p>The waves crashed against the shore, crashed over them where they lay kissing. Primal warmth, the swell of the incoming tide, the constellations above woven into patterns that spoke of their lives. When he entered her, the stars exploded, as stars have always done.</p>
<p>A bit later they lay gasping side by side on the sand. </p>
<p>Draco turned his head toward Hermione, his hair wet and dripping, sand stuck to one side of his face. “When properly done, there isn’t anything better than sex and magic.”</p>
<p>She brushed the sand from his cheek, her eyes holding his. “How did you know that all we needed to do was…”</p>
<p>“Fuck?” Draco grinned.</p>
<p>“I was going to say ‘consummate our marriage,’ but that works, too.” </p>
<p>“Well, it’s the only way a marriage becomes a real marriage, after all. And in ancient times, the consummation was everything.”</p>
<p>“Mmm. Still is.”<br/>Draco sat up and began casting a wandless charm to gather their clothes from where they lay strewn over the beach. “You’ll have to transfigure that frock, you know. Best not to go looking for our kids in something that see-through.”</p>
<p>Hermione laughed. She rose to her feet naked and stretched, while Draco watched appreciatively. Then she began transforming the discarded Egyptian gown into something more 21st century.</p>
<p>She’d only just dropped the new version of it into place when Draco said, “Look.”</p>
<p>Across the dark stretch of beach, over the low dunes beyond, two figures were moving toward them. One small, the other taller. The light from the full moon washed over them and lit them plainly.</p>
<p>“Leo! Starry!” Hermione waved as Draco sprinted toward their children.</p>
<p>Grabbing Leo’s and Starry’s hands, Draco ran with them to the shoreline where Hermione waited. She had barely got her arms around Leo when Draco, who was holding Starry in a tight hug, touched her on the shoulder.</p>
<p>“Happy reunions later,” he said. “Right now, we need to get out of here, wherever here is, before anything else happens.”</p>
<p>“How?” </p>
<p>“We came in through the Room of Requirement, remember? Quick, everyone— think of a door. Then focus on Barnabas and his Dancing Trolls.”</p>
<p>Hermione glanced at the pyramids to see what might be stirring there. But they stood silent as midnight, moonlight rippling over their dark surfaces like oil on black water.</p>
<p>It took only moments for a door to appear in the side of a sand dune and only seconds for Draco to wrench it open. <br/>No humming in their heads this time, no ripping winds.  The four of them simply tumbled into the corridor where the tapestry of Barnabas had hung for centuries. The door slammed shut behind them and vanished. </p>
<p>Just that quickly, it was over.</p>
<p>“In typical, annoying-parent fashion, we have a million questions for you,” said Draco, tucking Starry under one arm while Hermione put both of hers around Leo. “But Starry’s mum is worried sick. It would be cruel to keep her waiting.”</p>
<p>“Of course.” Hermione turned Leo toward the stairs. “Come on, you two. As long as you’re alright, we can talk in a bit.”</p>
<p>Minutes later, the four of them walked into the divination classroom and it was Astoria’s turn to hug her daughter.</p>
<p>“You did it!” Padma beamed. “I <i>told</i> you they would do it,” she said, with a sly glance at Draco’s ex.</p>
<p>Astoria’s dark blue eyes flitted from Draco to Hermione and back again, then narrowed in a Hex-You-Both scowl. There was no doubt which sort of ‘do it’ Padma had meant. </p>
<p><i>Merlin, how do they know?</i>  Hermione decided to feign innocence. </p>
<p>Draco merely grinned. </p>
<p>Astoria turned her back on both of them and went on hugging her daughter.</p>
<p>“Are you able to tell us what happened?” Draco asked the two teens as the atmosphere in the room began to relax. </p>
<p>“I don’t remember much,” said Starry. “It’s fading fast, like a dream. Leo?”</p>
<p> “Almost nothing.  One minute we were running down the corridor near your office, Professor Malfoy. The next, there were… jackals. I don’t know if they were real, or paintings or maybe statues. I’m just not sure!”</p>
<p>“There was a weird ceremony,” Starry broke in. “Smoky torches and stars. It looked like the ceiling in the Great Hall but these stars were low enough to touch! There were offerings to a goddess. And wine that looked like…”</p>
<p>“… blood,” Leo shuddered. Unconsciously, he and Starry moved from their parents to each other and joined hands. </p>
<p>Draco glanced at Hermione.</p>
<p>“Did you feel afraid?” he asked</p>
<p>The younger witch and wizard both shook their heads.</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“There’s a word for how it felt, though,” Starry added. “I think it’s… surreal?”</p>
<p>“But neither of you was harmed in any way?” Astoria asked anxiously.  “That’s the most important thing.”</p>
<p>“No, Mum. We’re fine, really!”</p>
<p>“Still, I’d feel better if Madame Pomfrey looked you over. Draco? Hermione?”</p>
<p>“Yes, that’s a good idea.” Hermione agreed.</p>
<p>Several hours, one great dinner with chocolate cake, and a thorough magical examination later, it was decided that Starry and Leo would spend the night in the hospital wing under the watchful eyes of the mediwitch. </p>
<p>“Just a precaution, nothing more,” Madame Pomfrey told the worried parents. “There’s no evidence that your children aren’t right as rain, but let’s leave them with me for now. I have one or two more spells I’d like to cast again in the morning, just to be certain.” </p>
<p>She then hustled the adults from the room and shut the door firmly in their faces.</p>
<p>They stood in the corridor as night came on, three people whose lives were strangely intertwined.</p>
<p>Astoria’s eyes searched Draco’s face, then Hermione’s. She seemed to suddenly accept whatever it was she saw there.</p>
<p>“Thank you both. I’m so thankful the kids are safe. Draco, we’ll talk soon.” She touched his arm, then turned and walked away.<br/>Hermione and Draco were left alone, listening to the sound of Astoria’s steps receding down the stone floor of the hallway.</p>
<p>They turned to each other at the same time, smiling at the exact same moment.</p>
<p>“What now?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Well, we’ve been seeing each other for almost two days. Three, if you count the dreams. I think that’s enough time.” He grinned. “Will you marry me?”</p>
<p>“Yes, I will. Oh, wait. Didn’t we already do that about twenty years ago?”<br/>“Magic says we did.” Draco laughed. “We just didn’t know it. We’ve a lot to sort out, Hermione. I say we get started tonight.”</p>
<p>“I agree. Want to start with a game of Hounds and Jackals?”</p>
<p>“Not on your life.”</p>
<p>Arms around each other, they set off down the corridor.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>*</p>
</div>In narrow, separate beds in the quiet hospital wing, Leo Granger-Weasley and Astariel Malfoy-Granger-Weasley slept peacefully.<p>They were not quite fifteen years old and had no idea that they were, according to ancient Egyptian laws and magic, officially married.</p>
<p>It would take a bad breakup after fifth-year’s Yule Ball and a seventh-year reunion on a warm Beltane night before they’d finally sort it. </p>
<p>Outside, the stars floated high above the old castle, winking knowingly at each other. </p>
<p>As stars have always done.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>FIN</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Story title from the song 'Can't Get It Out of My Head' by Electric Light Orchestra, inspiration taken from the lyrics:</p><p>"Midnight...<br/>On the water<br/>I saw....<br/>the ocean's daughter.<br/>Walking on a wave's chicane<br/>Staring as she called my name<br/>And I can't get it out of my head, no, I can't get it out of my head<br/>Now my old world has gone for dead<br/>'Cause I can't get it out of my head..."    It's an old, old song-- go and listen for yourself, if you like :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA111Tb9GCE</p></blockquote></div></div>
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